AgilePM

The AgilePM® certification helps to support people that need to work in an agile environment. The AgilePM guidance was developed by APMG in partnership with the DSDM Consortium. DSDM offers a practical methodology that provides a balance between the standards, rigour and visibility required for good project management, pace, change and empowerment of all project members.

The focus of agile project management is on developing solutions incrementally (bit by bit) which enables project teams to react to changing requirements, encouraging increased collaboration and better ownership with all project members.

Relationship between: DSDM, Agile Business Consortium and AgilePM

DSDM: This is the original organisation that created the the agile framework. In 2016, the name changed to "Agile Business Consortium" (https://www.agilebusiness.org)

DSDM Agile Project Framework: This is the latest and and current version of the DSDM Agile Framework

AgilePM: Is the name of the Certification from APMG based on the Agile Framework from Agile Business Consortium.

DSDM (Dynamic Systems Development Method) is the longest-established Agile method

DSDM Handbook vs AgilePM Handbook

The AgilePM Handbook (Agile Project Management Handbook) contains a subset (90%) of the DSDM Agile Project Framework handbook so these books are basically the same. It is focused on the management and delivery of agile projects and is written from a Project Managers point of view so it easier to understand. Some project managers also read the original DSDM Handbook as it provides an in-depth guide and we suggest to this this if you are going to work in a company that is going to use AgilePM.
The AgilePM Handbook is intended to be used to prepare for the APMG AgilePM exams which are AgilePM Foundational and AgilePM Practitioner.
You can visit the website www.agilebusiness.org for more information on DSDM. You can see links to other guidebooks, case studies and white papers.

What has APMG to do with AgilePM?

APMG is an Examination Institute and they accredit professional training and consulting organization and manages certification schemes. They approached DSDM and have created the AgilePM certification is tightly based on the DSDM Agile Project Framework.

The AgilePM Approach

The AgilePM approach provides project-focused principles, together with a set of roles and responsibilities that are ideally suited to a corporate project environment. The AgilePM approach has been simplified to better reflect current trends in evolutionary solution development as the delivery level and this brings the required flexibility.

The AgilePM approach insists that projects should do just ‘Enough Design Up Front’ (EDUF) within a Foundations phase (startup phase) so there is a basic understanding to help clarify the structure of the intended solution. Then a first version of an Agile plan for delivery can be created for the project.

The Foundations phase of a DSDM project is very different from the deep analysis and design steps used in a traditional ‘Waterfall’ approach. In the Foundations phase the analysis and design are done but you must avoid going into detail. This EDUF approach brings agility in developing the required solution. There is not point going in trying to do into detail at the start of the project as most requirements will not come to light until much later in the project.

The AgilePM approach is an agile project delivery framework that delivers the right solution at the right time as:

The project team and other important stakeholders are focused on the business outcome

Delivery is on time which ensures return on investment (regular deliverables)

All people involved with the project work collaboratively

Work is prioritised according to business need (high value deliverables)

AgilePM does not compromise on quality: delivered products must be usable

The AgilePM approach makes use of the knowledge, experience and creativity of end users. It uses an iterative lifecycle to evolve the most appropriate solution to satisfy project objectives and please the end users. Agile
The AgilePM approach breaks the project down into short focused periods of time (timeboxes), each timebox has clearly specified outcomes. Control is exercised throughout by the Project Manager and the team members themselves.
Roles are clearly defined and work is divided into Timeboxes with immoveable deadlines and agreed outcomes.

The AgilePM guidance is underpinned by eight principles for effective agile project delivery which are:

DSDM and the DSDM Consortium

DSDM is a proven framework for Agile project management and it helps to deliver results quickly. DSDM has been applied to a wide range of projects from small software developments, so other no IT creative projects and all the way up to full-scale business process change. DSDM works on all levels of projects from small simple projects to corporate projects.

DSDM was created in 1994 and is the longest-established Agile method. DSDM had a lot of input from RAD (Rapid Application Development) which was primarily focused on software development. DSDM Consortium was started as a not-for-profit organization and its objective was to manage the sharing, exploitation and evolution of the intellectual property of DSDM. In 2007 the DSDM Consortium made DSDM universally available on a free to view and free to use basis.

DSDM Agile Project Framework claims to be the only agile approach that focuses on delivery of projects in an agile way. This may have been true a few years ago but many other agile approaches made available in the last years and especially since the Agile Big Bang (the Agile Manifesto).

Value of AgilePM for the Project Manager

It is now accepted that in many projects, it is not possible for to gather all customer requirements up front, document the requirements in detail, create detailed plans and then work in a dark room until the product is delivered. We call this approach the predictive approach as we try to predict the requirements and planning at the start of the project.

The agile Project Manager requires a different style of management and skills to manage an agile project compared to a traditional predictive project.

The traditional Project Manager (PM) is responsible facilitation the process of elicitation the requirements, creating the detailed plans, handing out work, managing the performance of the team against the plans and checking that the delivered work tested (accepted) and reporting progress. Time, Cost and percentage of completion of work are used to report progress.

Sometimes milestones can be used to identify certain important points in a project plan: e.g. Ready to hand over deliverable to another project, ready to demo a version which includes much needed functionality, investment approval, first benefits results expected, etc…

Project work is often organized into predictive stages (Analysis, Design, Build etc.), with each stage focused on a particular type of work and providing an output to be validated by the completion of the next stage. This is different in a traditional project, where the Project Manager may be very actively involved in directing work and telling the team what needs to be done. This is often referred to a 'Command and control' style or managing a project.

So how does a typical agile project work?

The Agile Project Manager will start by creating a high level plan, based on the known requirements and this will include a high description of the solution to be created during the project. From that point onwards the end product is created iteratively and incrementally, with each increment building on the output of increments preceding it. This is like adding a new layer to an onion each 4 weeks.

To continue the onion analogy, it is important that each new layer (incremental subset) added is properly designed and built and demonstrably meets the needs identified. At the end of each stage, the outcome of that stage, together with the experiences gained, is used to create the detailed plan for the next stage. This is different to some traditional projects where the detailed plans for each step are created by the team members themselves and not by the Project Manager. During each stage the team works in an iterative and incremental style and are in very close collaboration with a representative of the business/customer in order to understand the requirements and to create and validate an evolving solution.

For the Agile Project Manager the “Command and Control” is replaced by a facilitative management style in an Agile project. Good facilitation skills help the Agile Project Manager to empowered the team. In fact, the team members are empowered to make day-to-day decisions about how to achieve their goal. The Project Manager role is focused on ensuring the team have all they need to achieve their goal, only stepping in when an exception is escalated from the team.

The difference between traditional project management and agile project management is the traditional project management is predictable and can be planned in detail (this works for some projects. However Agile projects are adaptive and we are not sure of our destination at the start of a project and need to make adjustments on the way.